บททั้งหมดของ THE DON'S WIFE LEFT HIM FOR HIS RIVAL : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 6

I knew my marriage was over the moment Dante looked at me and chose her.He didn't say anything. He didn't have to.I stood at the far end of the private dining room with my fingers wrapped so tight around the champagne stem I thought it might snap, watching everyone at the table watch the woman sitting beside my husband.Valentina.His childhood sweetheart. The one everyone assumed he'd marry, back before my father and his father sat down and decided otherwise. For a year I'd told myself she didn't matter. Tonight she made sure I couldn't keep telling myself that."This is ridiculous," she said, soft enough that half the table leaned in to hear it. "You should stop pretending, Isabella."I looked at her. She smiled — the kind of smile you wear when you already know how the evening ends."Pretending what?""That you're really his wife."A few people shifted in their seats. Nobody said a word. Somewhere behind me the old clock kept ticking like nothing was wrong.I looked at Dante. Bla

The first time I saw Dante again, I was in a black suit, carrying a security file underneath my arm. He was standing under the hotel's chandelier, as if he'd been mounted there.Three weeks. Apparently long enough for his appearance to change, or maybe mine. He stood among the hotel staff, perfect suit, perfect hair, and the same calculating mask, but this time I didn't slow my pace at the sight of him. The old Isabella would have taken a second to wonder if he was angry, if he missed me, if any of it kept him awake at night the way it had me.The new Isabella just walked up to him."Mr. Falcone."His eyes searched mine for something before settling on whatever he found. "Isabella.""I'm here for the Vale gala.""I know.""Let's discuss arrangements, then."His gaze traveled up and down, not that it hadn't done so before, but it held a certain interest, as if he were reading something he wasn't supposed to find. "Romano Shield.""That's right.""You actually did it.""You sound surpri

I didn't call Matteo. I told myself that for a week, right up until the night someone tried to break into the Romano Shield office.It happened at 2 a.m. The alarm system I'd installed myself did exactly what it was supposed to — cameras rolling, silent alert to my phone, the intruder gone before the police even turned onto the street. Nothing was taken. Nothing was damaged except the back door lock.But someone had left a folder on my desk. Inside it: photographs. Of me. At the hotel, at the café with Matteo's card in my hand, at my parents' estate. Someone had been watching me for longer than a week.I called my father first, out of habit, and immediately regretted it — not because he wasn't helpful, but because his first reaction was to reach for his own men, to handle it the way Romanos always handled things."I can protect myself," I told him. "That's the whole point of what I built.""This isn't about pride, Isabella. Someone is sending a message.""Then I'll answer it my way."